Back in October, Sprint prepaid subsidiary Boost Mobile announced that it would begin offering the iPhone 5s and 5c on November 8. And with the launch date drawing closer, the carrier has issued a press release with further details.
This will be the first time that Boost has offered the popular smartphone, and it's celebrating the occasion by taking $100 of each of the handsets. So you can get an iPhone 5c, sans contract, for as low as $449, and a 5s as low as $549...
I gave T-Mobile a lot of props this past week for truly trying to break the mold and do something that no other carrier has done — offering free data to iPad users. I probably should have just kept my mouth shut until I was able to put its claims to the test.
That's because When I walked into a T-Mobile store this morning, the reps told me that I needed to either be a paying phone customer, or pay $10 a month to claim my 200MB worth a free data. While I don't blame T-Mobile for wanting to make money, this was the exact opposite of its "no strings attached" claims on its website and in the press.
This wasn't just a one off. Every single T-Mobile store that I called this morning reiterated the idea that I needed to be a paying customer. All of them said the exact same thing, making it evident that it had to be a company line.
John Legere, T-Mobile's CEO, stated via Twitter that it was an "executional mistake." But how can a mistake be so pervasive throughout the company, unless some of its leaders were pushing the idea?
Instagram officially launched its advertising platform today, putting an end to its 3+ year-long ad-free streak. A 'sponsored post' from upscale fashion brand Michael Kors has begun appearing in user timelines.
But it's not like we didn't know this was coming. The launch comes just a week after the social network offered up a preview of what ads were going to look like on Instagram, and after months of several warnings...
Concerned Mac users took to Twitter this morning following the revelation of a chunk of code found in OS X Mavericks update that resets idle time when the computer detects motion. They feared this meant the iSight camera is 'always watching.'
But as it turns out, that's not the case at all. The code, which was first spotted by Moshen Chen of Radiantlabs, actually makes clever use of the light sensor positioned to the left of the iSight camera by interpreting "changes in light" as movement...
It's iPad Air launch day, and each member of the iDB crew just scored some new hardware from the Apple Store. What was the launch day experience like? What about first impressions? Join us for a special episode of Let's Talk Jailbreak, as the trio of Cody, Sebastien, and Jeff discuss the iPad Air in-depth. Should you get it? Is it better than its predecessor? How does it stack up to the iPad mini? Listen in for the full lowdown.
You know how they say that sometimes more is less. Some also say that specs don't really matter anymore. Well, it all comes true in a camera shootout carried out by the folks at Laptop Mag between the Nokia Lumia 1020, and the iPhone 5s. For those who are still keeping track of specs out there, let's note that the Lumia 1020 comes with a whopping 41MP camera. Apparently that wasn't enough to beat the iPhone 5s 8MP camera though...
The iPhone 5s conclusively beat the Nokia Lumia 1020 in our photo face-off, taking seven out of 10 rounds–and tying one. Even after updating the Lumia 1020′s camera software, which reduced issues with the blue color cast on many images, colors were still more accurate on the iPhone. Apple’s device also excelled when delivering detail and contrast.
Last week we reported that a redesigned Remote app icon had been spotted in iTunes, suggesting that the app would be getting its long-awaited iOS 7 makeover sometime soon. But we have yet to see that happen.
That doesn't mean we aren't close though. Today, more evidence of an impending update surfaced by way of a similarly-new Remote icon appearing in the Columbian App Store's 'Designed for iOS 7' section...
J.D. Power and Associates is an American-based marketing information services firm that's highly regarded for its research on customer satisfaction. Apple loves to quote their surveys, and does so at media events and on earnings calls.
But this is one report Tim Cook and company are probably not going to be mentioning. In J.D. Power's latest tablet customer satisfaction survey, Apple was bested by Samsung on overall satisfaction and in particular areas like device cost...
Due to time zone differences, Apple's online stores in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, Singapore and Australia had gone offline earlier this morning, ahead of the November 1 iPad Air launch. And right on cue, the online Apple Store in Australia, China, Japan and elsewhere have returned for business now.
Most of the stores are listing the device as shipping within 24 hours. The online Apple Stores across Europe and in North America are expected to go down in a few hours as Apple preps to take online orders at midnight.
I've got more info plus line shots from across the world right after the jump...
An interesting tidbit of information coming from analytics platform Distimo about the App Store most popular category – Games – and how much that category generates in terms of revenue.
Looking at the Top 400 Overall Grossing, 48% of all apps in the Top Overall were games and those apps generated 92% of the revenue for Google Play in September 2013. For the Apple App Stores (average of iPhone and iPad), 52% of the apps in the Top Overall were games and these apps generated 79% of the revenue.
In short, half of the apps in the Top Grossing charts of the App Store generate 79% of total revenue. Note that these apps do not generate 79% of the total App Store revenue. They generate 79% of Top Grossing charts revenue.
Apple has cunningly devised a novel though controversial way of promoting its own iOS 7 stock apps, features and services right in the App Store search. The application store has seen a whopping 60 billion cumulative downloads thus far and with over a million apps carried it's serving a lot of customers on a daily basis.
If you now go to the App Store and run a search for popular generic terms such as 'browser,' 'movies' and 'SMS', the first entry popping up in your search results should be a banner advertising a related stock iOS 7 apps or feature like Safari, iTunes Store, Messages and more...
As retailers have now begun receiving large shipments of iPad Air units, Apple's online stores in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere are now going down ahead of tomorrow's launch. The online Apple Stores in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, Singapore and Australia are all offline, with more going down as we speak.
This was to be expected. As is their wont, Apple typically takes its online store offline ahead of major product launches and significant product updates. The iPad Air is slated to launch on Friday, November 1, in the United States and a few dozen international markets...